王璜生的新作《渗》是一件体量不大的装置作品。在一个长3米，宽1.3米的长方形不锈钢器物中，注满了墨和水的混合物（以下通称墨·水），横贯其中的是一块高1.0米的薄铁板，铁板前后被生宣纸覆盖着，生宣纸表面全部用黄颜色精心滴淋处理，以至于如果不看作品说明，观众会误以为这块铁板是一块特制的类似于宣纸的厚纸板。再加上这件装置作品是在“纸·非纸”展上展出，更给人一种误读，几乎坚信这块“非纸”的铁板的质地是“纸”（以下通称纸·铁板）。这块纸·铁板被安置在不锈钢池中的墨·水间。墨·水处于静止状态，而纸·铁板则轻灵多变，优雅的轮廓在空中自由舒展。连接这一黑一黄两个大色块的，是墨·水与纸·铁板之间交界处水墨在宣纸上的痕迹，这些痕迹呈深紫褐色，状如河边的密林。“密林”的倒影复制于水中。

　　水在人类文化的描述和人们的观念中，一般以动、静两种形态为其主要存在方式——所谓“流水不腐”即是从水的流动特性上进行界定，而“静水流深”则是从水的静止表象切入其内在本质的描述。王璜生在《渗》中对水的使用，即是后一种方式。

　　展出第一天，本来处于静止状态的墨·水沿着宣纸逐渐渗化开来，形成现在看到的如密林般的形态。墨·水分分秒秒都在动，只是王璜生用某种方法控制了墨·水在宣纸上正常的渗化速度，以致于肉眼或人的耐性几乎看不到墨·水的渗化。密林的生成在不经意间，每一天去展厅看，“密林”的形状、高度与色彩、肌理、层次都发生了变化（加多张每日图），而这变化又难以描述到底是什么时候发生的，就像时间不经意间地流逝将不变的天空划分成了人肉眼中的“白天”和“黑夜”。

　　从这个意义上说，时间，是解读王璜生《渗》作品的关键。通过墨·水缓慢地渗透在宣纸中的过程，王璜生将时间物化了，时间从而成为他创作的重要媒材。据说，在提供作品说明信息时，王璜生在创作媒材一栏写的是：宣纸、铁板、墨、水、时间。看来，他对时间的思考超越于一般的艺术家对时间的认识，当他将时间上升到作为创作媒材的角度来思考时，起码在观念上，他已区别于他人。

　　在后现代艺术批评语境中，时间，既不是古典论断认为的那样具有线性的发展轨迹清晰可辨，因此可以用过去、现在、未来切割有序，古典主义的时间更多时候被空间化了；又非现代阐释中柏格森所描述的那样是“绵延”，作为“绵延”的时间拒绝将自身空间化，它的存在不是线性的，而是“同时”的，多维的；在后现代主义者看来，时间的本质具有非连续性、偶然性、

　　不可确定性，它尤其使主体感到了缺失。在没有目睹事物怎样变成“现在”而不是“以前”，或者说怎样变成“今天这样”而不是“昨天那样”时，主体的“当时”不在场使当下的描述变得贫乏，缺乏确凿的或直接的证据。面对时间呈现的“现在这个样子”，主体变成了鲍德里亚所说的带有“滞后性”，意即“来晚了”。主体对时间的体验呈现为非连续性的、断裂的、任意的，就如观者在观看《渗》时候的感受。观者在观念中、在常识里知道，随着时间的流逝，墨·水在宣纸上渗化出来的形状和色彩时时刻刻在变化，但是，这种变化太过缓慢，以致于肉眼看不出来。而当肉眼看出来这种变化时，面对变化，观者似乎成为一个“来晚了”的人，他对此刻呈现的水墨的变化的感知是滞后的、偶然的、不连续的、片段的、碎片的和任意的。

　　然而，时间在《渗》中空间化的呈现似乎又是古典的。首先，《渗》使观者看到墨·水浸透了宣纸，而宣纸上的水墨又湿了铁板，铁板因而“渗”锈了，锈又“渗”过宣纸，凝结在其上，成了铁在纸上开的花。锈花在黄的纸·铁板映衬下呈深紫色，深紫色的锈花比衬得墨·水呈深蓝色，一眼望去，一幅古典意蕴深厚的水墨画卷展开在眼前，而其创作手法和呈现方式却又是以装置这一后现代艺术形态呈现出来。尤其是纸·铁板的整体造型象一幅中国传统卷轴长卷，文人气息浓郁，不但改变了铁的质感，而且改变了铁作为工业文明标志的特性。此外，水墨在生宣纸上自然渗化所形成的肌理，与一般水墨画家常用的撞水、撞粉法效果相似。王璜生将一般水墨画家的日常劳作交给了自然来替他完成，或者让渡给了作品《渗》自己来完成。《渗》每天、每时每刻都在劳作着，在“渗”着，在代替他进行着他永远都在生成中的《渗》的创作。从某种意义上看，王璜生的《渗》横跨了古典与当代艺术。

　　《渗》的文化意义的所指似乎更引人深思。当观者的视线穿过《渗》这件作品悦目的表面时，其背后所看到的，则是中国古典文化与当代工业文明、中国古典审美意境与当代艺术形态之间的对话。这对话又因了墨·水在宣纸上非常缓慢地变化而变得具有了历史感。诚然，习俗的更改，观念的更替，社会的转变，文化的变迁，多是在缓慢、不经意间形成，这被文化史学家描述为历史的常态。而这样的缓慢变化经常会使本来博弈的双方变为相互“渗透”。当水墨使铁板生锈时，仿佛工业文明被传统文化消化了；而当铁锈穿透宣纸，在宣纸上遍地开花时，又似乎工业文明覆盖了传统文化；但当细究铁锈的立足之地时，又发现它若不是沾附在宣纸上哪里来的一派似锦繁花般的绚烂？而这如花的铁锈，虽是铁的产儿，却也是水墨催生而来。如此说来，这二者此时已不分彼此，而是你中有我，我中有你，互相作用下，“新”由此而生。

　　从这个意义上说，王璜生的《渗》，也许表明了他对待文化的一种姿态，这种文化姿态表现在王璜生对古典文明与当代文化，田园传统与工业文明，古典审美意境与当代艺术表现形态之间关系的思考中，正如他的装置作品所呈现的一样，在不停歇地、时刻地，“渗”着。

郭红梅 中央美术学院美术史博士，中央美术学院美术馆研究人员

2012年1月15日

　　Seeping: A Cultural Attitude
　　Wang Huangsheng's recent, Seeping, is a small size installation. A rectangular stainless-steel device of 3m in long and 1.3m in wide is full of  mixture of ink and water (called as ink-water following), and a thin iron plate of 1m in high traverses it. The front and back of the iron plate is covered by raw rice paper. Surface of those rice paper has been processed with yellow drops, so that if one does not look at the caption, he shall assume that the plate is a thick cardboard similar with rice paper. Additionally, this installation work is shown at the exhibition "Not Only Paper", it gives viewers a misreading: they almost convince that this hard texture of iron plate, as like this non-paper is real paper (paper/iron-plate), and this paper/iron-plate is placed in the ink-water within the stainless steel pool. Ink-water is in stationary state, while paper/iron-plate changeable, its elegant contour stretches freely in the air. Traces of water and ink in rice paper between the interface of ink-water and paper/iron-plate connect two color blocks of black and yellow. And these traces appear as dark purple-brown, such like dense forest along the river. And reflection of 'jungle' is copies in water.

　　In the description of human culture and attitude, water has two forms of static and dynamic as their primary modes of existence - so called 'flowing water does not rot' defines flow characteristics of the water, and 'still water runs deep' s a description from water's still imagery to its inner nature. Wang Huangsheng uses the last mode in Seeping.

　　This image was taken at noon on the first day of exhibition, the still ink-water gradually infltrated along rice paper, formed the jungle-like state as now we see.  Ink-water move every minute and every second, only Wang Huangsheng controls in some way the seepage velocity of ink-water, so tht naked eyes or people's patience almost cannot see the seepage of ink-water. Jungle emerges casually, when one visits the exhibition hall each day, the shape, height and color, texture, and layer of 'jungle' had changed and it is difficult to describe when these changes had happed. As like casual passing of time divids unchanging sky into 'day' and 'night' in human eyes.

　　In this sense, time is the key to interpret Wang Huangsheng's Seeping. By the process of ink-water slowly seepaged in the rice paper, Wang Huangsheng materialized the time, so time becomes an important medium in his work. It is said that when Wang Huanghsneg provided information on works, he wrote in the column Medium: rice paper, iron-plate, ink, water, time. It appears that his thinking of the time go beyond other artists' awareness of time; when he thought of time rose to a creative medium, at least in concept, he is distinct from the others.

　　In context of post-moderism critique, time cannot be distinguishable as linear trace of development as classical assertions., so it can be cut orderly as the past, now and future. The time of classicism is spatialized often; and it is not 'stretch' as Bergson described in modern interpretations, because 'stretched' time refuses to be spatialized and its existence is not linear., but simultaneity, multi-dimensinal; in the opinions of post-moderists, the nature of time is non-continuity, contingency and uncertainity, in particular makes the subject feel of absense. Without witnessing how things become 'now' instead of 'before', or 'today' instead of 'yesterday', the subject's absence at that time makes the current description more poor, lacking of clear or direct evidence. Confronted with 'like this' shown by time, the subject has a hysteresis, as like Baudrillard had said, it means 'come lately'. The subject's experience of time appears as non-continuity, broken and arbitrary, just as viewers are watching the Seeping. Viewer knows by concept and common sense that, with the passing of time, shapes and colors seepaged by ink-water in the rice paper always change so slow, that it is invisible to the naked eyes. And when you see it with the naked eye, in the face of change, viewer seems to be a late coming people; his perceptioon of changes of ink-water is lagging, incidental, non-continuous, fragmental and arbitrary.

　　However, the spatial appearance of time in Seeping seems to be classical. Firstly, it enables viewer to see that ink-water seepages through the rice paper, and ink-water in rice paper wets the iron-plate, and iron-plate effuses rust, thus rust seepages the rice paper, condensed on it, and become flowers in paper by iron. Rust flowers on yellow paper/iron-plate is dark purple, and deep purple rust flowers set off the ink-water as deep blue; with a glance, it looks like a classical ink painting, and its creation and presentation are rendered by installation of postmodern art. Especially the shape of paper/iron-plate looks like a piece of traditional Chinese scroll full of flavour of scholars; it not only changes the texture of iron, but also the properties of iron as a sign of industrial civilization. In addition, texture formed by natural seepages of the ink on rice paper is similiar with methods hit the water or hit the powder which used most often by artists. Wang Huangsheng gives the day-to-day works to the nature, or delivers to the Seeping itself to complete. Seeping works each day and all time and infiltrates, creates the work for him. From some point of view, Wang Huangsheng's Seeping comes across the classical and contemporary art.

　　The cultural significance of Seeping seems to be more thought-provoking. When viewer's sight goes through the beautiful surface of Seeping, what he sees behind is really the dialogue between classical Chinese culture and modern industrial civilization, between classical Chinese aesthetic and contemporary art forms. This dialogue has a senes of history because of the slow changes of ink-water in rice paper. It is true that change of customs, replacement of the concept, change of society and culture, mostly are formed slowly and inadvertently, which is described as the bistorical norm by cultural historians. And such a slow change often makes the both parties of the game to mutual 'osmosis'. When the ink rusts the iron plate, it appears that industrial civilization has been digested by traditional culture; while rust goes through the rice paper and makes flowers on it, it seems that industrial civilization covers traditional culture; but when you discuss carefully the rust, you can find that if it is not attached to the paper, where's the beautiful flowers? The flower-like rust is the child of iron, but born from the ink-water. That being said, both are common at this time, there is you inside me, by the interaction, the 'new' is born.

　　 From this meaning, Wang Huangsheng's Seeping may indicate his stance toward culture, which expressed in his thinking on relationship between classical civilization and contemporary culture, pastoral tradition and industrial civilization, classical aesthetic mood and forms of contemporary art, as like in his installation works, 'seepages' ceaselessly and constantly.

Guo Hongmei PhD in art history of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Researcher of CAFA Art Museum

January 15, 2012

作者：郭红梅